Lit: Uniquely Portable Magic

Goodness me, I found so many fun things the other night while I was having so much fun reading through the book section of the Huffington Post. Clearly I haven't been keeping up.

First up: Everything I Knew About Dating I Learned From 19th-Century Novels: Huge Mistake. You just know I'm going to like a list that includes two Jane Austen and a Charlotte Bronte reference. But this list might just have you keeping your teenaged daughter away from these novels.

Keeping in line with love in literature is These Are The Biggest Heartbreakers In Literature. There are some obvious choices (both Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler from Gone With The Wind) but the list also includes more current choices such as Yunior from Junot Diaz' This Is How You Lose Her.

I know all of you have come across characters in books you've wished were real just so you could slap them. Huffington Post has put together a list of 13 Famous Book Characters You Just Want To Slap. This one has a wide variety of characters including Amy March (Little Women - have to agree with this one!), Effie Trinket (the Hunger Games series) and Peter Rabbit. Of course, it's not always such a bad thing to have a character you want to slap in a book - many times that's just the reaction the author wants you to have. Who would you add to this list?

Catherine McKenzie, who's made it her mission in 2013 to read 52 books from the New York Times bestsellers list (are you a member of her Goodreads group?), has put together a list of books she thinks we should be asking for this Christmas or Hanukkah from the books she's read this year. Included are John Greene's The Fault In Our Stars, Cathy Marie Buchanan's The Painted Girls, and Stephen King's Joyland. What books have you read this year that you would recommend people put on their wish list? What books are on yours? I never make a list - I'm completely unable to convince anyone in my family that I need more books!